The legal profession has the honourable aim of seeing that justice is done, and most its practitioners further that aim. But that is not to say that the profession is perfect. As in any other calling, there is a need for a periodic examination of conscience.

There is a mystique about the Law and all its trapping which frightens many laymen and it is fostered by many lawyers. The wearing of wigs and tattered gowns, the moral domination of the ordinary man by the professional in the court, the incomprehensible legal jargon - all of these could be construed as blinding the public with science. And the process works. The average man with a case to make or meet places himself unreservedly - and often uncomprehendingly - in the hands of his lawyer.

But recently an awareness has grown that there is a danger that justice could well get lost in the legal undergrowth. The ordinary man is now evincing a healthy interest in legal procedures. Questions are being asked. Should we not by now have Irish Law, rather than a hand me down code from another country and another era? Are the courts, and their long vacations, adequate to the task of dealing promptly with the volume of legal business? Is there one law for the rich and one for the poor? Do we need a battery of solicitors and senior and junior counsel, or would one attorney on either night not suffice?

The appointment of judges is coming in for scrutiny. In some countries there are schools for prospective judges. In others, candidates for the Bench have to undergo rigorous qualifying tests - including a psychiatric examination. The system of appointment in Ireland, by comparison, is casual and sometimes unconvincing, since judgeships are the gift of the politician.

But the re-writing of laws and the appointing of judges can seem remote from the common man. His contact with the law is at a lower level - when he walks into a solicitors office. What happens him when he does has become the concern of the National Association for Clients of the Legal Profession, a group of laymen formed earlier this year. Their worry is that while many solicitors do their work conscientiously and well, there are many who do not. They are seeking remedies to what they regard as fairly widespread abuses - the handling by solicitors of clients money and title deeds to their own advantage, the unnecessary prolonging of litigation, the representation by one lawyer of both buyer and seller, the unpredictable and sometimes excessive fees demanded. Many solicitors, while admitting that abuses do exist, plead that they are perpetrated by a tiny minority within the profession.

As John Seldon pointed out in the early 1600s, not all men know the law. But in the late 1900s, quite a number of men want to know more about its practise. This can only be good for both the profession and the public. This documentary hopes to look at some important aspects of law and its practise.

Produced by John Skehan

Originally broadcast 16th November 1975

An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries